Making Safe Loads Safer
Page 51
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THERE has been a good deal of comment recently con". cerning insecure loads. Considerable publicity has been given to a few, accidents which, unfortunately, have been particularly nasty and have occurred owing to loads breaking loose. It is therefore of primary importance to ensure that personnel receive instruction in the best methods of securing loads.
Personally, I believe that the actual " securing" of loads is fully carried out in the majority of cases, but it is my experience when travelling by road to come up against frequent instances where the job has not been properly completed. Often, the load itself is safe enough, but the ropes or chains for securing it have not been adequately stowed after -fixing.
Yet another failing is in the matter of covers or tarpaulins, which sometimes billow dangerously, through the load being originally insecure or having reached that state during transit. Sometimes, after the discharge of loads or part loads and journeying light, vehicles will proceed with their covers folded and thrown on to the platform with or without some weight to hold them.
The moral seems quite plain—adequate and proper securing of loads initially, but I suggest that those fleet owners who do not already advise their drivers to make periodic inspections of lashings, chains and other methods of fixing should adopt this procedure.
Some operators I know have decided to put notices in cabs, reminding drivers that when stopping the opportunity should be taken to carry out an inspection of fastenings.
Thorpe Bay, Essex. TRUNICIE.
Continental Contrast in Commercial Vehicle Driving
THE matter on which I am writing may have been men tioned before; it concerns the driving conditions and road courtesy in the United Kingdom and on the Continent. In particular it compares our commercial-vehicle drivers with those on the other side of the Channel.
After just completing a 3,300-mile tour of France and Italy it is true to say that 1 received practically no help at all in overtaking the heavy commercials that operate there on all classes of road, despite "all modern conveniences being fitted to them (fancy signals, microphones, etc.).
On returning to this country it is indeed a tonic to see the commercial-vehicle drivers here give helpful and friendly signals after they spot you in their driving mirrors. I consider that our drivers are to be congratulated.
Pinner, Middx. A. J. C. HODGES,
Director and General Manager, Greenhill Motor Co., Ltd.,
More Light on the Rolls Bus
REGARDING the references to a Rolls-Royce bus chassis in your issues dated June 27 and August 8, 1 can inform your correspondents that I have a well-illustrated book on the life of the Hon. C. S. Rolls, which may provide a solution of the problem. In this book it is stated that he dealt in foreign chassis, mostly French, and it seems to be quite possible that a bus chassis was imported .by. him before he joined up with the firm of Royce. It appears that Rolls, not being satisfied with the foreign vehicles, intended to go one better. It is definite, however, that no bus chassis were of Rolls-Royce make. ..
Henley-on-Thames.. • G. GILES.
(Reader since third issue, 1905).
When Bulk .Milk Collection Started
ppl■ EFERRING to Mr. G. Anderson's letter (July 11) on '• bulk milk-collection schemes, we are the only company to have supplied bulk tanks for all the schemes and have supplied more than half the tanks installed. We are, therefore, in an advantageous position to know when the various schemes were started. For the purposes of record they are as follows: Kirkcudbrightshire, April, 1954; Wigtownshire, May, 1956; Northern Ireland, January, 1957; Newbury, April, 1957; Angus, May, 1957; and the Midlands,
September, 1957. J. R. KNOX,
Reading. Technical Director,